It was the Denver Broncos playing way up there and the Eagles below sea level that gave Peyton Manning a few more records Sunday in a runaway 52-20 victory at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

The Eagles were within one point in the second quarter and trailed by just eight at the intermission. But they managed just one touchdown in the second half while the Broncos tallied four.

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“We didn’t play well offensively, we didn’t play well defensively, we didn’t play well on special teams,” Eagles cornerback Cary Williams said. “We just got a good old-fashioned butt whipping.”

Manning set a record with four touchdown passes. It gives him 16 in a 4-0 start for the Broncos, who scored the most points in their history, snapping a 50-year-old record.

The Eagles (1-3) were close. They pulled within 14-13 and had the momentum when Chris Polk crashed in from four yards out for his first NFL touchdown with 11:06 left in the first half.

But they scored on just one of their last five possessions, the touchdown coming on a Nick Foles throw to Jeff Maehl when the game was hopelessly out of reach.

Chip Kelly said Michael Vick remains the starting quarterback. Vick, who completed 14 of 27 attempts for 248 yards and no touchdowns, sounds like he wants to call a team meeting. Vick said he and his teammates “looked drained.

“Coach Kelly has addressed this to our team,” said Vick, who also rushed for 41 yards. “I feel like a lot of guys on this team should be stepping up to be leaders right now. That is part of our responsibility. I’m going to keep a watch on these guys to see who is stepping up and who is staying optimistic and who continues to believe in the man next to him. That is what it’s going to take.”

It’s also going to take more effort from Kelly.

The water cooler talk will be about the possession Kelly gave up on. Facing fourth-and-six at the 37-yard line of the Broncos with 3:15 left in the first half, Kelly had the Eagles punt.

“I just didn’t want to give them field position if we didn’t get the field goal and just make it that much shorter for them,” Kelly said. “I thought we had been good on plus-50 yard punts. I thought we could pin them and make them go the distance.”

The Eagles had the momentum. They trailed just 21-13 in a game that was a track meet. A small handful of players were brave enough to reveal they were surprised Kelly wasn’t aggressive. His plan of pinning the Broncos with a punt, holding Manning and possibly getting the ball back with good field position and enough time to score seemed like a fantasy to players. Conservative doesn’t beat Peyton Manning.

“Yeah, umm, I won’t say yea or nay,” veteran receiver Jason Avant said. “But we stopped them. It ended up fourth down, we just didn’t play well enough on offense to win the game. Maybe with a team that doesn’t have the same offensive capabilities you can stall a drive or two. But a team like that you’ve got to produce points at a rapid rate. A defensive stop is huge. With a team like that you’ve got to continue to score.”

Kelly said basically the same thing later in his news conference. There was no mention of attempting a field goal, though, with 10:46 left and the Eagles trailing by 36 points. It was poetic justice that Alex Henery pushed it wide right.

This is the same Kelly who went for two points after the Eagles’ first touchdown in their previous game and broke the backs of the opposition weekly while at Oregon.

The Eagles nearly paid for the late conservatism in the first half when Manning threw a 52-yard pass to Eric Decker, who rolled all the way down to the 40-yard line of the Eagles.

Rookie Earl Wolff, outclassed in his first start, rotated out of the two-deep alignment used much of the half and gave Williams no deep help.

The Broncos reached the 33-yard line but Knowshon Moreno was flagged for roughness, Cedric Thornton sacked Manning and on third-and-12, Broncos head coach John Fox decided to punt with the lead and 18 ticks left.

Oh, and the Broncos marched 80 yards and 10 plays after getting the ball first in the second half to take a 28-13 lead, their largest of the game to that point, on Manning’s second TD pass.

A questionable holding penalty on cornerback Bradley Fletcher, who didn’t appear to initiate the contact, turned what should have been third-and-goal at the 6-yard line into first-and-goal at the one.

By then it was all over for the Eagles except the math.

The good news is they seemed to have escaped serious injury. Running back LeSean McCoy, who rushed for 73 yards, exited after apparently being affected by the altitude. He said he’s OK.

Wide receiver DeSean Jackson declined comment about getting treatment on his right knee.

The Broncos scored 31 straight points in the second half.

The Eagles entered the game with just one three-and-out in 38 possessions. It was two three-and-outs after their first series. And it wasn’t like the Broncos tested them.

The Eagles almost positioned themselves to knot the game but Brent Celek dropped a perfect pass from Vick at the four-yard line in the first quarter. Henery kicked a field goal.

Henery’s kickoff wasn’t deep enough and the Broncos got away with a brutal hold by David Bruton right in front of referee Peter Morelli. It enabled Trindon Holloway to go 105 yards for that score.

It was almost impossible to miss Bruton’s tie-up of Jordan Poyer, for it was at the point of his burst up the sideline.

It was that kind of game for the Eagles.

“It’s always tough to lose,” Avant said. “But we’re 1-3. And that’s who we are. We’ve got to work hard to get out of the hole and win the next game against the Giants.”